Reviews

If you are looking for a change-of-pace desktop that has a modern flare and very tiny learning curve, Ubuntu's integration of both GNOME 3 and Budgie easily can fit your needs. If you want to keep using the Ubuntu family desktop line, take the other Ubuntu flavors for a spin.

Or, consider checking out the GNOME and Budgie flavors as an alternative to your current Linux distro. Canonical is a solid developer that has pioneered many innovations.

Uruk GNU/Linux is a complete, user-friendly desktop operating system with strong commitment in free software that is derived from Trisquel. Uruk 2.0 is derived from Trisquel 8 Flidas (that is still in Beta now) that is derived from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Uruk features MATE Desktop as its interface, with LibreOffice and VLC there, plus Emacs and GIMP preinstalled, and completed with Ubiquity to easily install the system. If you kindly want a 100% free distro (despite for now, it hasn't been recognized by FSF) that is user-friendly and actively developed, I wish you'll be happy with Uruk. So here's a quick look to its live session. Enjoy!

Debian base, kernel 3.X, a desktop and some apps. That's pretty much that. This is true in 90% of the cases, and the distinguishing factor is tiny, if any. But I'd like to believe there should be more, so that I can feel like I'm not just repeating same old stuff over and over without any real benefit or unique advantage. BunsenLabs Deuterium gives us a lightweight setup, it truly is that, but on any moderately decent hardware, the advantage goes away, and in its place, you get the horrible ergonomics of Openbox, which is simply not suited for any reasonable, modern work.

Hardware support is mediocre, the installation process is quirky, it's very hard to customize the desktop, network support is average, and in the end, you need to invest energy to achieve something you get out of the box with any other desktop environment. There's really no justifiable reason for that. Perhaps Deuterium will appeal to a small base of users, who want the flexibility and simplicity of Openbox, but for the vast majority of people, it's a hassle.

So much in fact that I gave up. There wasn't anything cardinally wrong with the distro. But it's like walking into a store, seeing something, and then you move on, because there was no magic. Something like 2/10. Well, maybe next time. Or perhaps a different desktop environment.

KaOS is a rolling release distribution built from scratch. It's stated aim is "to create the highest quality distribution possible". For that, it uses the Linux kernel, the KDE Plasma desktop and Arch's Pacman package manager. Interestingly, the project's website states that they are hoping to one day replace the Linux kernel with the Illumos kernel.

This was far more interesting than I'd expected. One, there isn't ONE font that works uniformly well across different desktop environments, and frankly, that is a little bit disturbing. Two, Ubuntu still offers the most complete default package. Three, POP! fonts are rather nice and modern, and it seems they work the best in stock Gnome, if you're not already using something like Droid Sans.

It would seem we've chipped another facet of this multi-dimensional monster called Linux Fonts, as it feels just impossible to nail down the simple, elegant formula for maximum ergonomics, productivity and fun. You have to ride the licensing, anti-aliasing and hinting shuttles all at the same time, and they seem to be going in different directions. Ubuntu is way ahead of the rest, and this is why the System76 experiment will be rather intriguing. I want to see how the complete package will behave. You should test and see how you feel about Roboto Slab and Fira. My hunch says, Gnome great, Ubuntu, not so much. But we will see. And of course, we shall be testing the distro, so stay tuned.

ArchLabs Linux was a very happy discovery. It did a lot to change my impression of Arch Linux. It especially made up for the problems Parabola Linux posed.

I found that the Archlabs distro was an excellent Linux OS option to install on several very old laptops from the post Windows XP era. I have gotten far too comfortable using resource-intensive distros on my newer desktops and laptops. Archlabs Linux is a fun and effective alternative.

If you want to stretch your Linux desktop acumen from the Debian Linux lineage to Arch Linux, Archlabs might be a better choice than Parabola.

Arch Linux is something of a black sheep when it comes to installing and configuring a Linux distribution. It presents a few more stumbling blocks than other Linux options, which could make it a less welcome alternative to some users. Arch Linux distros are notorious for their intense installations and sometimes-challenging software management processes.

Distros based on Arch Linux usually are not good choices for newcomers to the Linux operating system. Users need a better handle on how Arch Linux works to use Arch-based distros successfully. Considerable background reading is necessary for things to make sense with minimal frustration.

I have offered that cautionary advice numerous times in reviews of less-well-known Linux products, and recent experiences prompted it once again. I discovered two seemingly worthy distros that provided an opportunity to revisit the trials and tribulations of working with Arch Linux derivatives.

ClonOS is one of the latest operating systems to be entered into the DistroWatch database. The project's website describes ClonOS as follows:

ClonOS is a free, open-source FreeBSD-based platform for virtual environment creation and management.

The operating system uses FreeBSD's development branch (12.0-CURRENT) as its base. ClonOS uses ZFS as the default file system and includes web-based administration tools for managing virtual machines and jails. The project's website also mentions the availability of templates for quickly setting up new containers and web-based VNC access to jails. Puppet, we are told, can be used for configuration management.

It's no secret to anyone: KDE and its latest implementation, Plasma 5, have been my favorite applications and desktop suite for quite some time now. I started GNU / Linux with Gnome 2 that brought Ubuntu Feisty Fawn but quickly jumped to that unknown ocean, full of strange words with the letter K in them, called Kubuntu.
Coming and going, distros and more distros, until you end up trapped by the Chakra magic and its unique environment. As much as I have tried to change this fact in successive attacks of distro hopping. I have not been able to accommodate myself to anyone other than Cinnamon, although I have missed a few features almost exclusive to Plasma. It also happens in reverse, that is, I think that KDE suffers from some things, but in the balance weighs more, by far, the positive than the negative.

Netbooks are often ridiculed as a solution looking for a problem but they are also regarded as the ancestors of present day Chromebooks and “cloudbooks”. With the resurgence of these more modern but still low-performance devices, it might seem that the netbook is due for a revival as well. Or so that seems to be the proposition GPD makes with its almost literal Pocket computer. But does that make more sense now than it did before, especially in an age of powerful smartphones? We take the Ubuntu Edition of the GPD Pocket for a good and thorough testing to find out.

More in Tux Machines

Linux: To recurse or not

Linux and recursion are on very good speaking terms. In fact, a number of Linux command recurse without ever being asked while others have to be coaxed with just the right option. When is recursion most helpful and how can you use it to make your tasks easier? Let’s run through some useful examples and see.

today's leftovers

MX Linux Review of MX-17. MX-17 is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS Linux communities. It’s XFCE based, lightning fast, comes with both 32 and 64-bit CPU support…and the tools. Oh man, the tools available in this distro are both reminders of Mepis past and current tech found in modern distros.

Samsung stopped the distribution of the Android 8.0 Oreo operating system update for its Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones due to unexpected reboots reported by several users.
SamMobile reported the other day that Samsung halted all Android 8.0 Oreo rollouts for its Galaxy S8/S8+ series of Android smartphones after approximately a week since the initial release. But only today Samsung published a statement to inform user why it stopped the rollouts, and the cause appears to be related to a limited number of cases of unexpected reboots after installing the update.

The Xen Project is comprised of a diverse set of member companies and contributors that are committed to the growth and success of the Xen Project Hypervisor. The Xen Project Hypervisor is a staple technology for server and cloud vendors, and is gaining traction in the embedded, security and automotive space. This blog series highlights the companies contributing to the changes and growth being made to the Xen Project and how the Xen Project technology bolsters their business.

A few days back I reported on Intel Icelake patches for the i965 Mesa driver in bringing up the OpenGL support now that several kernel patch series have been published for enabling these "Gen 11" graphics within the Direct Rendering Manager driver. This Icelake support has been quick to materialize even with Cannonlake hardware not yet being available.

Introduced as part of LunarG's recent Vulkan SDK update is the VLF, the Vulkan Layer Factory.
The Vulkan Layer Factory aims to creating Vulkan layers easier by taking care of a lot of the boilerplate code for dealing with the initialization, etc. This framework also provides for "interceptor objects" for overriding functions pre/post API calls for Vulkan entry points of interest.